Billy Donovan remembers 20,000 people coming to the Superdome—to watch practice. And he can’t forget how long the jog was from the locker room to the court. It was a long trip, but it had nothing on the journey the Friars had taken from Big East obsolescence to the college mountaintop.

For the first seven years of the league’s existence, Providence finished either last or next to last, a slap to the face of former Friars coach Dave Gavitt, one of the Big East’s founding fathers who at the time served as league commissioner. If it hadn’t been for Seton Hall’s even greater futility at that time, Providence would have been the conference’s biggest charity case.

In 1985, a fast-talking New Yorker who had won 64 percent of his games over five years at Boston University and had spent the previous two as an assistant with the Knicks took over. At his introduction, Rick Pitino told everybody to forget investing in the stock market; Providence basketball tickets would provide a much better return. People laughed at that, and Providence Journal writer Bill Reynolds ripped him. “I told Bill in 1987 that if he bought eight season tickets, he would have gotten rich selling them,” Pitino says, laughing.

At his first team meeting, two players showed up 30 minutes late, according to Donovan, and Pitino made them run five miles six days in a row at 5 a.m. (30 minutes = 30 miles). He was hardly impressed with his roster, which included 10 guys “who were not any good,” Pitino once said. The 5-11 Donovan, at a robust 191 pounds, was one of them. Donovan wanted out, and Pitino was happy to accommodate him. One problem: Northeastern and Fairfield, Donovan’s two preferred destinations, didn’t want him. So, Pitino told the guard to lose 30 pounds and come back ready to run and press for 40 minutes.

“He told me, ‘If you do everything I ask, you will have the greatest year of your life,’” Donovan says.

The first year was great. Providence finished fifth in the Big East, won 17 games and made it to the NIT quarterfinals. The next season was even better. The Friars reached the Final Four, and their jaws were agape at 20,000 people watching layup lines. “It was a crazy setting,” Donovan says.

Nobody worked harder than the Friars, who practiced three times a day before the NCAA instituted its 20-hour rule limiting activity. Nobody ran like them: playing 94 feet every second of the game. And nobody shot like them: After experimenting with the three-point shot for a few seasons, the NCAA made it universal in ’86, and thanks to Pitino’s experience with the Knicks, he understood its importance and how to exploit it. In a conference known more for bloody noses than rainbow jumpers, Providence’s long-range assault was unheard of.

“We used the three-pointer to our advantage,” says Carlton Screen, a freshman guard on the team. “Our goal was to take more threes than the other team. We also wanted to defend the three-point shot better than anybody. We did both very well.”

* * *

Pitino wanted the Friars to jack up three-pointers in ’86-87, but it wasn’t until Providence took on the Soviet Union in an exhibition before the season that the coach realized even he had underestimated how often the team should launch threes. The Soviets had finished second to the US at the ’86 World Championships and were aficionados of the trey ball.

“We felt like if we took 12-15 threes a game and made five, we would lead the nation,” Pitino says. “That night, I think we took 18, and the Russians took 30. I realized my projections were too low. We changed our estimates to 23 to 25 a game.”

While the Friars were working to increase their output from beyond the arc, the rest of the Big East was approaching the area behind the line as if it were a moat filled with crocodiles. Coaches like Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim, Villanova’s Rollie Massimino and St. John’s Lou Carnesecca regarded the three-pointer as blasphemy. For the season, Providence averaged 19.5 3PA per game, which was more than the Orangemen, Wildcats and Red Storm combined (19.1). And since PC made 42.1 percent of its shots from deep, it was getting tremendous return on its long-distance service.

The approach was pretty basic. Donovan would either launch from beyond the top of the key off a screen when a defender was too lax, or he would penetrate and kick to either Delray Brooks or Ernie “Pop” Lewis on the wing. Donovan and Lewis took more than 220 threes apiece that season, and Brooks put up 157. Each shot above 40 percent behind the arc.

“We were a whole bunch of guys who hadn’t played much before Rick got there, and we were just thrown into the river,” says Jacek Duda, a center on the team. “Rick made everybody believe in themselves, and after that Soviet Union game, we just shot more from behind the arc. It was great.”

Donovan made the transformation from a chubby reserve into “Billy the Kid” and Pitino was quick to outfit him in a cowboy hat and boots for the ’86-87 media guide. Even more impressive was Brooks’ metamorphosis from a beaten-down former prep phenom into a key piece of a Final Four team.

Brooks was such a heralded prep player that Indiana’s Bob Knight invited him to the 1984 Olympic trials. But when the ’84 USA Today POY reached Bloomington, he struggled in Knight’s structured setting and didn’t respond well—as many did not—to Knight’s abuse and constant haranguing. He transferred from IU to Providence halfway through the ’85-86 season, and Pitino set about the business of building his confidence.

“When you play for Bob Knight, you can either be broken down or fall in line,” Pitino says. “He came to me a beaten guy, and I had to get his confidence going. It worked out great.”

When Pitino took over, the Friars were a casual bunch who enjoyed hanging out and weren’t pushed too hard in practice by kindly coach Joe Mullaney. But early on, the Friars learned that while they were good-time buddies, they weren’t all that close. Pitino challenged them to learn more about each other, the better to build a tight link on the court. He supplemented that bonding with a grueling practice schedule that included three workouts a day, along with late-night two-on-two games involving the coach. “During our first meeting, Coach Pitino told us we would be the hardest working team in America,” Screen says.

During Pitino’s two seasons at Providence, he stressed basketball and academics; that was it. Graduate assistant Jeff Van Gundy was in charge of making sure the players attended class. “If you were one minute late, you ran at 5 the next morning,” Screen says. There was individual instruction, walk-throughs, film study and three-hour afternoon workouts. At night, Pitino and Lewis would challenge Donovan and Brooks. “I was in pretty good shape then,” Pitino says. “The games were pretty even.”

Fueled by hours of prep and ready to shoot the three-pointer at all times, the Friars went at the Big East bullies and thrived. Providence finished 10-6 in league play, its best-ever conference mark. When Georgetown visited, the Friars earned a win with late triples by Brooks and Lewis, and Pitino almost got in a fight with Hoyas coach—and PC graduate—John Thompson. Thompson was shouting at Pitino, and Pitino wouldn’t back down. They had to be separated at midcourt.

“I was standing there, looking at his navel, ready to fight him,” Pitino says, laughing at the image. “After the game, he put his arm around me and said, ‘I’m proud of what you’re doing with my alma mater, but when you come to Georgetown, we’re going to kick your ass.’”

Georgetown did rough up the Friars in DC. And the Hoyas handed Providence an 84-66 defeat in the Big East semis. But the Friars were headed to the tourney for the first time in nine years, and that was big. Providence rolled past UAB in the first round, 90-68, behind 35 points and 12 dimes from Donovan. But things weren’t so easy in the second round against Austin Peay. In fact, it took some good fortune for the Friars to survive, but they did, barely, winning 90-87.

Next was a talented Alabama team, but Donovan’s 26 and Brooks’ 23 propelled a 103-82 rout and set up a regional final with…Georgetown. After the Big East tourney loss, Pitino assured the Friars they wouldn’t have to see the Hoyas again. Now, he was saying Thompson’s team was an easy mark.

“I told them they were the luckiest bunch of guys I had seen,” Pitino says. “I said, You don’t realize it, but there is only one team that isn’t afraid of you. They’re going to take you so lightly that it will be a cakewalk to the Final Four.”

And it was. Georgetown pushed its defense out to the three-point line, so the Friars went inside. Providence attempted only nine treys—12 fewer than the Hoyas—and Donovan and Brooks drove and fed the big guys. Donovan scored 20, but so did forward Darryl Wright. Big man Steve Wright had 12, and forward Dave Kipfer added 11 in a surprisingly easy 86-73 win.

“Before the game, [Pitino] told Delray and I that we couldn’t shoot the ball,” says Donovan, who attempted only five shots but was 16-18 from the line. Brooks took two shots. “He said he wanted us to pass the ball.”

If there was one team the Friars didn’t want to see in New Orleans, it was Syracuse. The Orange had three future pros: guard Sherman Douglas, forward Derrick Coleman and center Rony Seikaly. “They had our number,” Pitino says. Cuse gained a 36-26 halftime lead and held Providence to 36 percent shooting (26 percent behind the line) in a 77-63 win. The magic ended.

But the memories remain rich. “We defied a lot of logic,” Donovan says.

Duda still marvels at the turnaround keyed by a coach whom players thought was “completely crazy.” And Screen simply calls it “an unbelievable ride.” Pitino has won two national titles and countless games since, but considers that ’86-87 season perhaps the most important of his career.

“I’m in my 42nd year of coaching, and because of that Cinderella team, I believed for the rest of my coaching career that anything was possible,” he says. “Any comeback is possible, and any team can accomplish great things. Providence kept that alive for me.”

Embiid showed off a soft touch, smooth post moves and dominant defensive play around the hoop.

Per Philly.com:

“There are times that I get emotional watching him today in shootaround,” (Sixers coach Brett) Brown said. “And you see how many seats with white shirts on them, and it’s opening night and Joel Embiid is here. To see him arrive now and tonight is a special night,” he added. “I’m so proud of him.”

It didn’t take long for him give the Sixers crowd something to cheer about. He blocked (Russell) Westbrook’s 7-foot jumper 3 minutes, 59 seconds into the matchup. […] Throughout the game, the crowd was chanting “Trust the process” or “MVP” when Embiid went to the foul line.

With Kevin Durant injured for much of the 2014-15 campaign, Westbrook led the NBA in scoring at 28.1 points a night and threw up 1,471 shot attempts in just 67 games.

Per The Oklahoman (via Yahoo):

“I think if you go back two years ago when Serge (Ibaka) was out and Kevin missed those (55) games, and they’re on the cusp of making the playoffs, I think at that point in time when you set up a system and a style of play and everything is geared toward Kevin Durant and Serge and they’re such big priorities for you offensively, and now they’re not there, you’re not going to be able to just plug somebody in Kevin’s role or Serge’s role and they’re going to be able to just fill in that late in a season.”

Donovan’s thought is an offseason of planning will look a lot different than having to make up on-the-fly for the injuries that plagued the Thunder in 2014-15. While Ibaka and Durant are huge losses – a combined 33.3 percent of the offense from a season ago – their offseason exits give the Thunder more time to formulate a gameplan around Westbrook and his ability to create for the players around him. […] Arguably no one in the NBA did that better than Westbrook last season, who finished second in the league in assist percentage (he assisted on 49.6 of the Thunder’s field goals when in the game). Donovan said Westbrook understands that he’s “gotta make everyone else around him better.”

“I think for Russell, he tried to put the team on his back and say ‘OK, I’ve got to get us to the playoffs,” Donovan said. “I think because we’re starting out without those players available, we’ve got some time to evolve and develop a style of play and a system, and certainly he’s going to be the catalyst and the key to it.”

The Thunder’s play remained solid and its lead comfortable well into the fourth quarter. When Russell Westbrook hit two free throws at the 5:16 mark, OKC’s lead sat at 95-81. Then it all fell apart, against a contender in front of a national audience, for the second time in the past five days.

Kevin Durant, who went from dominant to lost as the game turned to its most crucial moments, couldn’t hold onto the ball. Durant fumbled itaway on a crucial drive with under four minutes to go. It fortunately landed in a teammate’s hands and then swung back to Durant. So he tried to drive again. And he fumbled it again, this time to Jamal Crawford who turned it into a layup. It was one of his six giveaways. […] “I turned the ball over too much,” Durant said.

With the victory, the Clippers moved to one game back of the Thunder in the loss column, as two matchups, both in Oklahoma City, linger later this month. […] “We’re fooling ourselves if we want to be a great team the way that we’re playing,” Durant said. “We’re fooling ourselves.”

Durant, who really needs to make a decision about who the best player in basketball is, has gotten off to a strong start this season (the former MVP is putting up 29.2 points on just under 50 percent shooting.)

Per The Oklahoman:

Turnovers and free throws were under the microscope Wednesday, as the Raptors swept into Oklahoma City on the second night of a back-to-back to win 103-98. Despite 16 assists from Russell Westbrook, the most in a single game in the NBA this season, a first half marred by turnovers kept the Raptors breathing. A second half plagued by personal fouls helped Toronto thrive standing still. […] “I thought it was for us a tale of two halves,” Thunder coach Billy Donovan said. “We turned the ball over again in the first half at a very high rate. We fouled too much and put (DeMar) DeRozan too much to the free throw line.”

“We can’t come into a game and just hand the other team the ball,” said Kevin Durant, who scored a team-high 27 points for OKC. “That’s basically what we’re doing, and putting them on the free throw line. So, it’s basically we’re down 20 points before we even start playing. It’s tough to win that way. We had this game in the bag. We had the last two games in the bag.”

Westbrook took over for stretches in the second half, scoring 20 of his 22 points after halftime. He was hammered on a drive at 7:19 in the fourth quarter, then two possessions later got into a mini-skirmish with Raptors center Bismack Biyombo. The result was an offensive foul on Biyombo and a technical, Westbrook still holding his neck and grimacing.

On Friday night, OKC Thunder head coach Billy Donovan had All-Star guard Russell Westbrook post up on three consecutive possessions against Turkish club team Fenerbahce Ulker’s overmatched defense, resulting in

On Friday night, OKC Thunder head coach Billy Donovan had All-Star guard Russell Westbrook post up on three consecutive possessions against Turkish club team Fenerbahce Ulker’s overmatched defense, resulting in three straight buckets.

Westbrook is expected to increasingly take advantage of his otherworldly strength and athletic ability on the block against other guards this season.

Per The Oklahoman:

Three plays, three Westbrook post-ups, six Thunder points. A 10-point lead spurted to 16. An opposing timeout was called to stem momentum and scheme an adjustment. […] “It’s another dilemma you can present to different teams,” Donovan said.

Westbrook has always had rare explosion for the point guard position. But three summers ago, he started strength training harder in the offseason with his father. Then he began studying how to best channel that core power into on-court post production, emulating a couple of the craftiest low-block guards. […] “Watching some of the older guys, Chauncey Billups, Andre Miller,” Westbrook said.

That 2012 summer also came with a trip to the Olympics. While competing for Team USA, Westbrook spent a ton of time with Kobe Bryant. Kobe has long said he loves Westbrook’s attack mentality and sees a lot of himself in the Thunder guard. That summer, he clearly imparted some of his post-up wisdom. […] “I learned a lot (from Kobe),” Westbrook said.

The Pelicans improved in the win column under Williams in four of his five seasons.

Per Yahoo! Sports:

For Donovan, who is transitioning from the University of Florida to the NBA, the securement of Williams stands as the first significant coup of his regime.

Donovan and Thunder general manager Sam Presti targeted Williams and sold him on a prominent role on the staff. The Thunder have championship aspirations with a core of Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and Serge Ibaka, and playing a part in helping Oklahoma City into a deep run in the postseason could become a springboard for Williams, 43, to ascend into another head coaching job.

Under Williams, star Anthony Davis developed into one of the NBA’s dominant talents. Williams is a member of Mike Kryzyzewski’s coaching staff with Team USA. Williams had a nine-year NBA career, after starring at the University of Notre Dame. […] Donovan will keep Oklahoma City assistant Mark Bryant and Darko Rajakovic on staff, and likely make former Alabama coach Anthony Grant his No. 3 assistant coach, league sources said. The Thunder are still searching for an assistant coach with a strong defensive pedigree, sources said.

Florida may have found the man that it wants to replace Billy Donovan. According to a Yahoo report, the Gators have targeted Louisiana Tech coach Michael White as a potential successor to the current Oklahoma City Thunder coach, and he could come in for an interview as soon as today.

The 38-year-old White is a Florida native who has spent the last four years at the helm of the Bulldogs’ program. In that time, he has guided the team to a 101-40 record with three straight appearances in the NIT.

A meeting between Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley and White could take place as soon as today, sources said.

The 38-year-old White, son of Duke athletic director Kevin White, has done extensive recruiting in Florida as an assistant at Mississippi and as head coach at Louisiana Tech. Last season’s Tech team included five players from Florida on the roster.

Similar to the style Donovan first employed at Florida, White coaches a fast-paced style, which could be seen as an important selling point to a fickle Florida basketball fan base. Louisiana Tech has ranked in the top 50 in Ken Pomeroy’s tempo statistics the past three years.

Billy Donovan finally made the move to the NBA last week, as the longtime Florida coach agreed to become the head coach of the Oklahoma City Thunder. While it was a massive loss for Florida fans—Donovan had an insane 467-16 record in Gainesville—they can probably take some solace in knowing that the university was prepared to lose Donovan. According to a report, Florida began collecting information several months back on potential successors for the two-time national championship winning coach.

The Gators have been collecting information on potential successors since at least February, probably even earlier.

Although athletic director Jeremy Foley said Monday he would sit down with his search team later in the day and discuss potential candidates, he made it clear that school officials have been planning for Donovan’s departure for some time.

Foley said the process only intensified when the NBA’s Oklahoma City Thunder fired coach Scott Brooks on April 22.

“We heard some undercurrents that this [was] a possibility, so we began looking at coaches probably several weeks ago,” Foley said.

The Thunder hired Donovan on Thursday, prying him away from Florida after a 19-year college career that included two national championships, four trips to the Final Four and 14 appearances in the NCAA tournament.

Donovan was formally introduced at his new job Friday. He returned to Gainesville over the weekend and, during a news conference Monday, formally and tearfully said goodbye to the football-first program he essentially put on the college basketball map.

Foley choked back tears while talking about his relationship with Donovan, saying “what we really didn’t know 19 years ago was the type of person we were getting. One of the best, you know?”

Q: What was your reaction when you heard the news? […] A: “I was excited. When you don’t have a coach, it’s a lot of uncertainty in the building. But coming into the practice facility today, I felt like it was the next step for us. It was an exciting feeling for everybody that was there at the gym today to learn that we got Billy as our coach. We’re exciting and we’re looking forward to it.”

Q: What’s your relationship with Billy like now? Do you have a relationship with him? Do you know him at all? […] A: “I met him one time out in Vegas. He was there for USA Basketball. And I’ve heard good things about him. I’m sure we’ll click pretty quickly. But I don’t have a relationship with him. I don’t know him. He didn’t recruit me at Florida, so I don’t really know him too well. I’m just going off of what guys that played for him said. And I’m looking forward to meeting him and getting a feel for him myself.”

Q: Billy’s known for a lot of different things. His Florida teams have been great defensively. He’s a really sharp Xs and Os guy. What kind of expectations, or do you have any expectations when you get into training camp about the areas Billy Donovan can really help you guys evolve? […] A: “It’s going to take some time. I think just for him over the summer is big for him to get to know more guys. Obviously he’s watched us before and knows what our strengths and weaknesses are as players. But I know he’s going to do a good job because from what I’ve heard he works extremely hard, his attention to detail is one of the best and everybody’s been telling me he’s an NBA coach coaching in college. So I’m excited. I’m very excited to learn from him and get better from him and try my best to do whatever he tells me to do. I can’t wait to get started.”

The expectations for Donovan are immediate and massive: He must help convince Kevin Durant to sign a long-term extension with the Thunder, and push an immensely talented roster toward its first championship. […] Durant , the 2014 NBA Most Valuable Player, can become a free agent in the summer of 2016.

Thunder general manager Sam Presti has long targeted Donovan to replace the deposed Scott Brooks, and was the only candidate he pursued, sources said. Durant reached out to multiple former University of Florida players in the NBA to gain insight into Donovan, league sources said, and became generally positive about the hiring.

Donovan turned down offers to coach the Cleveland Cavaliers and Minnesota Timberwolves a year ago. He agreed to become the Orlando Magic’s head coach in 2007, only to change his mind and return to Florida after signing a contract and holding a news conference. The NBA did not allow him to be considered for head-coaching jobs until the term of that five-year agreement ended.

Within NBA coaching circles, Donovan is widely regarded as the clear favorite to succeed Brooks, who made one trip to the NBA Finals and two other trips to the Western Conference finals in his seven seasons as Thunder coach. […] Donovan is the first known candidate to talk with the Thunder about the job. It was not immediately clear how many other candidates, if any, Thunder GM Sam Presti plans to sit down with.

(Donovan) also has a very close with relationship with Presti, who has hired two members of Donovan’s staff at Florida within the past 12 months to take positions with Oklahoma City — Mark Daigneault as coach of the Thunder’s D-League team and Oliver Winterbone as a data analyst. Donovan and his family are very entrenched in the university community after his nearly two decades as the coach in Gainesville. Leaving those ties and the college basketball kingdom Donovan has built there, for faraway Oklahoma City, is believed to be the biggest hurdle that could prevent the Thunder from ultimately hiring Donovan, who resisted serious interest this time last year from the Cleveland Cavaliers and Minnesota Timberwolves despite his well-known ambitions for coaching in the NBA someday.”

But for what it’s worth, it doesn’t seem like Presti is asking his stars for their opinions:

The braintrust in OKC will reporteldy evaluate the long-maligned coach, in order to determine if Brooks—who has his deal guaranteed through next season, with the franchise holding a team option for 2016-17—is the right person to lead this team into the future.

With Kevin Durant’s free agency next summer hanging over everything like a dark cloud, this offseason will be a crucial one for the Thunder.

Per Yahoo! Sports:

Oklahoma City missed the playoffs for the first time in six years on Wednesday, finishing 45-37 with superstar Kevin Durant lost for most of the year. Thunder general manager Sam Presti has to decide an organizational direction for the final year of Durant’s contract, and that will include a decision about whether Brooks is ultimately the coach most capable of delivering a healthy Thunder roster to a championship. Brooks is well liked within the organization and has forged close relationships with management and players in his seven years as head coach.

Several league sources close to Brooks have doubts about his job security.

If a change comes, University of Florida coach Billy Donovan could emerge as a serious candidate to coach Oklahoma City, league sources said. Presti has a longstanding friendship with Donovan, a two-time national championship coach who has been open about his interest in moving to the NBA. […] Connecticut coach Kevin Ollie would be a candidate for the Thunder’s coaching job if it opens, league sources said. Ollie was a teammate with Durant and Russell Westbrook in Oklahoma City and an individual whom Presti holds in high esteem.

It’s been a rough season for the Florida Gators. Billy Donovan’s squad was expected to compete in the SEC. Instead, it is currently 12-11 with a 5-5 conference mark and squarely in the middle of the conference. One of the team’s few bright spots has been leading scorer Michael Frazier, who is averaging 13.2 points a night. Unfortunately, Frazier went down with an ankle injury during the squad’s 68-61 loss against Kentucky over the weekend, and according to Donovan, there is no timetable on when the Gators’ sniper will return.

Florida Gators coach Billy Donovan said Monday he is not expecting junior guard Michael Frazier II to play Thursday against Ole Miss due to a high ankle sprain suffered during Saturday’s loss to Kentucky. Donovan did not provide a timetable for Frazier’s return, per the Tampa Bay Times.

Frazier is the Gators’ leading scorer, averaging 13.2 points per game. He is also among the team’s top 3-point shooters (40.1 percent). Frazier also averages 4.6 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game.

Frazier had a season-best 27 points in a 72-71 loss at Ole Miss on Jan. 24. The Gators are unranked with a 12-11 record (5-5 SEC). They have lost their last two games.

Could Billy Donovan eventually head to the NBA? According to the Florida head coach, the NBA is “intriguing in a lot of ways.”

Donovan has flirted with the NBA before, and earlier this month, the Florida coach said the he has received some calls from NBA teams about their coaching vacancies. However, Donovan has been consistent in saying that he is happy with his situation in Gainesville.

Per the Associated Press, on Tuesday Donovan said, “I think when you start making guarantees about life and start making guarantees about where you’re going to be, that’s not good because if for some reason I ever change my mind and did something, I wouldn’t want (people) saying, ‘Well, he promised, he guaranteed, he said this on record.’ I just think when you start doing that, that’s a mistake.”

Certainly. Donovan’s coached in college for two decades now. He just completed a four-year run wherein he made a Final Four after reaching three straight Elite Eights. The Gators are set up to be good again next year, but you could see how this is an opportune time for him to take a chance in his career (and earn even more money). Donovan turns 49 on Friday.

Remember, he briefly left Florida for the Orlando Magic in 2007, only to double back and stay with the Gators less than a week later. Provisions in his contract made it near-impossible for him to flirt with the NBA after that; those provisions/that contract were wiped clean when Donovan signed an extension of three years to his deal this past winter.

“All I can say is I love Florida, I’m happy here … the school’s been great to me,” Donovan said, per the AP. “But at the same point, some of the NBA stuff, as I’ve said before, is intriguing in a lot of ways — the basketball part of it. That’s not to say that I’m unhappy here; that’s not the case at all.”

Florida head coach Billy Donovan has reportedly been a candidate for NBA head coaching vacancies in Minnesota and Detroit, and was loosely tied to the Knicks’ job, but shot the rumors of his leaving down during a recent press conference. Via the Orlando Sentinal:

Donovan said he received a few phone calls from teams and spoke to a couple of NBA teams, but added, “that’s all I’m going to say.”

Donovan would not elborate primarily because of his ill-fated foray with the Orlando Magic following the 2006-07 season. Donovan briefly accepted the job, but backed out and returned to Gainesville.

“After the Orlando situation, that’s all I’m saying. That’s it,” Donovan said. “So I’m not going to get into, ‘He’s lying, he’s not being truthful.’ I got a couple of calls, that’s all it is.”

Donovan’s success during 18 seasons with the Gators likely will make him an attractive NBA coaching candidate every spring. In April, UF reached the Final Four for the fourth time, positioning Donovan to become only the sixth coach to win three NCAA titles.

The Gators lost in the national semifinals to eventual national champion Connecticut.

“It’s always flattering,” he said. “But at the same time, I’ve always said that I’m very happy here and like it here. Jeremy has been great here. I like where our program’s at and the direction we’re going.”

Donovan did not shut the door on coaching in the NBA one day.

If the right situation arose, Donovan now is free to leave.

Donovan shot down all speculation, claiming that he plans on coaching the Gators last year.

One of the biggest questions in college basketball this week was who was going to replace Syracuse as the No. 1 team in America, No. 2 Florida or No. 3 Wichita State?

In Monday’s Associated Press poll, Florida took the spot with authority, as the Gators received 47 of a possible 65 first place votes. The Shockers received 14 first place votes and are second in the poll. The only other team to receive first place votes is No. 3 Arizona, who received four.

“Although it’s a nice honor and it’s great, if you really want to break it down, what does it mean?” Donovan told ESPN.com. “It means that some teams in front of us lost. It means that we obviously were given that ranking. But whether we’re 15, 2, 1, not ranked, we’ve got to play [Tuesday] against Vanderbilt. To me, the ranking doesn’t do anything for us, it doesn’t give us anything. It doesn’t.”

Florida senior forward Will Yeguete thinks the Gators will handle the challenge well.

“Our lives aren’t really changing,” Yeguete said. “We’re No. 1. That’s a really good accomplishment, especially for us being No. 1. But I think Coach D will use that to motivate us. We’ve been No. 2 before. We know what it is to be ranked really high. We know you just take one game at a time.”

This is the first time Florida has been the top team in America since its last National Championship in 2007. Syracuse, meanwhile, fell to the 4th ranked team in America, while Kansas rose three spots to round out the top five.

Nineteenth-ranked Florida’s hobbled backcourt received some good news today when it learned that guards Scottie Wilbekin and Kasey Hill will suit up for the team’s showdown with 13th-ranked Kansas tomorrow night.

Hill suffered a sprained ankle during the team’s 67-53 victory over Southern. The star freshman was averaging 10.3 points and 4.3 assists per game prior to the injury.

As for Wilbekin, he hurt his ankle on Monday during the team’s 65-64 loss to UConn. Despite the initial prognosis being a sprained ankle, the senior’s injury turned out to be less serious than originally anticipated.

Wilbekin sprained his right ankle during last Monday night’s 65-64 loss at Connecticut, but the injury turned out to be less serious than originally believed.

X-rays proved to be negative, but the school announced on Tuesday that Wilbekin had suffered a high ankle sprain. Promising freshman point guard Kasey Hill suffered a high ankle sprain on Nov. 18 against Southern and could sit out his fifth game, against Kansas.

Wilbekin, though, did not suffer similar damange and practiced on Saturday, the school’s Web site reported.

“We held him out the last couple days,” coach Billy Donovan told the Web site. “He’s fine now.”

ESPN’s Andy Katz reported earlier today that Hill will play. This will be the first time this season that both guards will suit up for the Gators in the same game.

After shredding Jacksonville for 12 points, 7 assists, 5 rebounds and 3 steals in Florida’s 86-60 win last night, guard Scottie Wilbekin apologized to fans for missing the first five games of the season due to a suspension.

Billy Donovan suspended the senior during the summer for a violation of team rules. It was the second time in as many years what Wilbekin was suspended.

Florida starting point guard Kasey Hill injured his left ankle last night, and will miss at least a month of action with a sprained ankle.

Hill, a freshman out of Montverde Academy, was averaging 10.3 points, 4.3 assists and 2.3 steals on the season prior to going down. His loss leaves the Gators without a true point guard for the foreseeable future. It is expected that shooting guard and leading scorer Casey Prather will now take the team’s duties at the point, with 6-8 forward Dorian Finney-Smith also contributing.

Replacing guards Mike Rosario and Kenny Boynton just got a little easier for Billy Donovan, as the NCAA has ruled Rutgers transfer Eli Carter eligible for the 2013-14 season.

Carter is a rising junior who spent the first two years of his college career as a guard in New Brunswick, New Jersey, leading the team in scoring in each of his first two years. The former two-star recruit scored 14.9 points, pulled down 2.8 rebounds and dished out 2.1 assists per contest last year for the 15-16 Scarlet Knights.

Carter left Rutgers after the school fired coach Mike Rice, who was caught on videotape shoving, grabbing and throwing balls at players and using gay slurs during practice.

Gators coach Billy Donovan says ”we are happy to have Eli available to play right away this season.”

Carter will be joined by rising junior Scottie Wilbekin in the backcourt for the Gators once Wilbekin rejoins the team after violating team rules during the offseason. Florida will look to build on last year’s squad, which won the SEC regular season title and made it to the Elite Eight.

Chris Walker (Bonifay, FL/Holmes County HS), one of the top recruits in the class of 2013, committed early Sunday morning to the University of Florida. With his committment, Walker will continue to play with longtime friend and Florida Elite teammate Kasey Hill, one of the best point guards in the ’13 class. Billy Donovan now owns the No. 1 recruiting class in the nation, according to multiple scouting services.

“I will be playing college basketball for the University of Florida,” Walker said via YouTube. “I will be teaming up with Kasey Hill, and together we will be the best duo in college and we will win a national championship.”

“I made this choice from my heart,” he later added on Twitter. “I wanted to go to a team that I’ma get better as a player and a individual. We WILL make it to Final 4.”

Walker picked the Gators over several other prestigious programs, including Kansas, Louisville, Ohio State and Syracuse. The 6-9, 210-pound combo forward is equipped with precocious athletic ability and an excellent touch in the paint. He has size, explosiveness, and a tireless motor. On defense, he blocks shots and rebounds with relentless tenacity. Walker and Hill—who was Donovan’s first commit in the Class of 2013—will make for a scary duo in Gainesville.

After just one season in Gainesville, Florida guard Bradley Beal will forgo his sophomore season and declare for the NBA Draft. Beal is widely considered to be one of the best prospects in this year’s class, and is projected to be a top-5 pick. The USA Today has the details: “He first confirmed the decision his twitter account when responding to one of his followers ‘yessir!’ when asked if he was leaving and also confirmed the decision on the school’s website just prior to a 10:30 a.m. press conference. ‘It’s my dream and it’s sitting right here in front of me,’ Beal said. ‘God has put me in this situation and I have to take advantage of it. I think I’m ready to realize this dream, so now I have to go and pursue it.” Added UF coach Billy Donovan: ‘He’s as mature a kid at this age as I’ve ever been around. I really gave him a lot of space since the season ended. I don’t think he was influenced by anybody.’ Various services have Beal forecast as one of the top five selections. Beal, listed at 6-foot-3 by the Gators, averaged 14.8 points, 6.7 rebounds and 2.2 assists in his only college season. Beal started all 37 games this past season and lead the Gators in minutes played (34.2). He shot 44.5 percent from the floor, 34.2 from the 3-point line.”

There’s just minutes left as the University of Florida basketball team trounces host New Hampshire in a game set up so fans can pay homage to NH native and Gators starter Matt Bonner, and all pretenses are over. With Florida freshman David Lee on the free throw line moments after ending a pair of recent possessions with a two-handed facial on a UNH power forward and a one-handed, tomahawk putback, many of the 7,000 fans-having seen the home team get down by 40 and having already given Bonner the requisite standing O-start yelling for the visitors: “Miss your second one, David! That way we can see another putback!”

But Lee lets them down by swishing both FTs, and so the fans turn their attention to Florida’s other high-flying rookie, James White. Every time White touches the ball the fans rise in anticipation, their dreams finally realized when the 6-6 two guard steals an inbound pass and dribbles the length of the court before delivering a lovely cupped-in-one-hand, spread-eagled slam at the buzzer, running off the court to a crescendo of applause.

Yep. As fans around the country will learn as we get deeper into the college basketball season, it’s like that when the Florida Gators come to town. Leave your seat to buy a hot dog at your own peril, for Lee and White are always prepared to pull off a dunk that-literally-you may never have seen before.

Sitting in their hotel room in nearby Portsmouth, NH, Lee and White are more than happy to explain the art of dunking a basketball, a skill they’ve both come awfully close to mastering before their 20th birthdays. Let’s put it like this: Any number of talented, brilliant freshmen enter college each year. If two Westinghouse Science Scholarship winners came to the same school, roomed together, and began groundbreaking work on the human genome project, you can be damn sure that Scientific American would want to record their thoughts. In this case, the groundbreaking is being done with a ball and a rim, and we’re SLAM. Enough said.

“Yeah,” answers White. “When it comes to dunking, we’re the most exciting two players on the same team in the whole country.”

Of course, both bring a lot more to the table than the fact that they can raise up higher than Petey Pablo. They’re both solid students and extremely amusing young men. They both rep cities (DL from St. Louis and Flight from Washington, D.C.) that get little hoop love compared to the likes of New York and L.A. And they were both McDonald’s All-Americans last spring, with the NBA waiting for them as soon as they shape up their bodies and round out their games. But all that stuff is hard to bring up once these two roommates get talking about dunks.

“A good dunk changes things,” professes White. “You could shoot 1-for-37 in a game, but if that one was a nice breakaway dunk, you can change the course of the game. People will be like, ‘Good game,’ even though you were 1-for-37. It’s just the most exciting play and I love to do it because I feel like I’m a showman out there.”

While the 6-9 Lee has what White calls “sneaky bounce” and an above-the-rim history that is relatively young, the Legend of James White has been growing ever since his freshman year of high school. Coming up just outside DC in Prince George’s County, MD, young James played mad sports. “My dad had me involved in football, Tae Kwan Do, anything that would keep me out of trouble,” recalls James White IV. “I didn’t get serious with basketball until maybe 13, when he would take me to different playgrounds, or maybe wake me up early to play with his postal worker friends. I was taller than the other kids my age were, and my dad is 6-5, so he was teaching me low-post moves, mostly. But I realized I could dunk too, and I probably caught my first around that age, when I was 6-1.”

Combining the relative polish of his low-post game with extreme athleticism and some strong bloodlines (besides his talented father, James occasionally balled with his cousin Rodney White, now of the Pistons), White was quickly seen as a prospect. “The summer going into my sophomore year, I got to play on the DC Assault AAU team with Keith Bogans, DerMarr Johnson and all these other great players,” says White. “I knew I was a great dunker because even though I didn’t play one second the whole summer-not one second, and I went to tournaments with them in Vegas, California and D.C.-I was getting mail from all the top schools. Just because of what they had seen me do in warm-ups! And all these guys on my team were like, ‘Hey, young fella, you got bounce! Can you do this dunk? Can you do that dunk?’ And I was like, DerMarr Johnson is telling me this? Then I must really be all right.”

White spent his sophomore and junior years at Newport High School in Kensington, MD, and most of his summers around DC, doing his thing on various playgrounds and in the Kenner League. As a senior, White attended Hargrave Military Academy, a strict boarding school in Chatham, VA. On one level, White’s various prep experiences-far from the raucous public school scene in PG County-kept him below the radar. “I think if I had played public school ball I would have been a serious legend in DC, because it seemed like some people never knew who I was,” James says. “But [going away to school] was best for me since I was able to focus on basketball and school. I’m a pretty distractible guy and the attention might’ve gone to my head.”

Private school or not, White’s name was bubbling in basketball circles like Mos Def’s used to in hip-hop. As Lee explains, “When I started my senior year of high school I had never even seen James play because we played at different camps and tournaments, but I had heard about him. There were people that don’t hardly know anything about basketball, and they were on the street talking about James, and how they heard he can dunk from the free throw line with two hands. It’s amazing how these legends grow.”

After committing to Florida just before the start of his senior year, and then finally meeting his future roommate at UF’s Midnight Madness in the fall of ’00, White cemented his rep in high school circles during the week of the McDonald’s Game. He may have lost to an athletic-and gimmicky-Lee in the dunk contest two nights before the game, but White had fans of all ages searching their memory banks for images of anyone else who had ever pulled off a two-hander from the charity stripe. Needless to say, there weren’t too many names popping into people’s heads.

Today, the skinny, 180-pound White is the first or second man off the bench for a nationally contending Gator team (conveniently, his roommate is usually the other of the first two off the pine), expected to provide perimeter scoring and defense as well as a highlight or two every time out. Through the season’s first six games, UF was 5-1 and White was averaging 22.2 minutes and 6.5 points per game on 50 percent field goal shooting, along with 2.3 boards and 2.2 assists per.

“As he showed at Midnight Madness, James’s dunks are just silly,” begins Florida head coach Billy Donovan. We know, Coach-we’ve got the tape. James went from just inside the foul line with one hand, grabbed it with two hands, pumped it across his chest and dunked it with the two hands. Then he had to duck his head so he didn’t hit it on the base of the rim. And by the way, James White’s hands are too small for him to properly palm a basketball. Scary. Silly. Unbeatable? “If there’s a contest with something on the line,” teases Flight, who has called out Vince Carter by name, “then I don’t think there’s anyone-anywhere-who can beat me.” Shit, the dunking has distracted us again. We’ll let Donovan finish now. “But there’s a lot more to James than his dunking. He’s a very unselfish kid who doesn’t take many bad shots and is a great passer.”

As well as White passes the rock on the court, he’s equally good at passing along compliments, which he does to Lee as eagerly as the white boy has done to him. “Dave pounds it on ’em, man,” says White. “He’s the type of guy, if you a black dude, you look at him like, ‘Man, this dude is sorry, with his shaggy hair and all that.’ And then all of a sudden he posts you up and dunks on you.”

While Lee-a 230-pound power forward who will need more finesse before he’s as NBA-ready as his boy James-may dunk with a little less beauty than White, he had more than enough flavor to make St. Lunatics out of the fans who watched him in the Show Me State. “I grew up kind of on the outside of St. Louis, but I used to always go into the city and play on teams that were mostly black,” remembers Lee. “That was where the best competition was, and I felt the only way to get better was to play with the older and better players in the area.”

Eventually, Lee worked his way into the inner circle of top-level St. Louis ballers. “I got to know guys like Darius Miles, Larry Hughes, Jahidi White and Loren Woods, and eventually they started asking me to come to their games,” Lee recalls.

As much as the local pros and pros-to-be appreciated Lee’s ability to bang on the blocks and his near ambidextrous shooting skills (thanks to his sophomore season at Chaminade Prep, when he broke his natural left hand and finished the year shooting righty), the real reason they called Lee was to feed him for some jams. “I dunked for the first time the summer before ninth grade, back when I was only about six feet,” shares Lee. “I wasn’t able to get known and get in the good games until after 10th grade, though, because by then I’d grown five inches. I was big, and I could still jump. By my junior year in high school, every time I’d get out on a two-on-one break, the people would be getting up out of their seats to see what I would do.”

His local rep intact, Lee used the rest of his junior year and the AAU season that followed to cement his name on a national level. “I think it took me a whole extra summer to get noticed because of being from St. Louis,” Lee says. “For instance, when my AAU team, the St. Louis Eagles, played the Southern California team with Tyson Chandler, Cedric Bozeman and those guys, they’d have four of the top-25 ranked players in the country, and that motivated me because it seemed like it was a lot harder for the talented players from our city to get noticed.”

One person who obviously noticed was Donovan, who shrewdly got Lee to commit along with White and Kwame Brown. “We lost that third guy, of course,” smiles Donovan, “but I was still thrilled to get these two guys. I think James and David both found our style of play very appealing.”

Thus far, Lee’s productivity has been comparable to his roommate’s. In 18.7 mpg through the first month of the season, Lee was averaging 7.8 ppg on 53 percent from the floor, complemented with 5.0 rebs and 1.3 steals per. And Lee owns a matching dunk contest claim to boot. “There’s no debate between James and I-he’s the most amazing dunker ever to come out of high school. But if there’s ever an all-white competition, nobody’s going to be up there with me.”

Obviously, Vinsanity ain’t taking on Flight anytime soon, and there’s no Brent Barry-David Lee contest on the horizon either. But there are some 20-odd games left in Florida’s schedule. Just remember not to leave your seat.